1,000th post, and it's a pig

Bollocks to feeding this blog beast. Am too busy single-handedly keeping this agency afloat. Whilst doing so, I've been employing Spotify as ear wallpaper. Kudos to this brilliant playlist that amuses and entertains.

Gardening leave

Thoughtful chaps ought to be pleased that the perennial problem of picking pubic hairs out of their teeth is on the wane now that it’s socially acceptable for women to have their front gardens openly referred to in, of all places, TV advertising.

Wilkinson Sword Quattro for Women by JWT

Don't worry. Everything's going to be alright

Pinch me because I must be dreaming and it’s 2007 again. Remember that feeling of wellbeing you had before you started to worry about the wave of immigrant polar bears stealing your job as they fled the melting ice caps?
This ad is circa today, and with heart-warming confidence omits any mention of emissions or recession-friendly words like “value” or “saving”. And there is no number with a slashed pound-sign on it either. There’s the Teutonically-enigmatic word “efficiency” which has more to do with overtaking oiks on the motorway with minimum fuss than it has to do with saving cash because the engine’s so damn good at extracting the final calorie from every litre of petrol.
So, thank you WCRS for reminding us that, for some, the recession is merely a minor inconvenience that will pass as quickly as that BMW on its way to that posh charity bash for distressed bankers. I feel much better now.

Nice flip

I'm tickled by Boing Boing's observation that the DVD cover of The Princess Bride is an ambigram, where the words read the same when you flip the image over.

A kick up the eighties

I won't tell you what I was doing when the stewardess told me "Just hold this over your nose and mouth, and breath normally," but I was very young, and I did pass out. Thus with excellent timing after our first credit crunch Christmas, when you expect a bland avalanche of travel advertising, does this top notch spot of time travel from Virgin Atlantic burst onto the screen.
It certainly cheered me up - a non-PC reminder of how Branson Airlines cheekily challenged British Airways. This reminds us of how we cheered the funderdog, which is just the right message for a time when the public is learning to distrust its institutions. I love it.

Agency: Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R

Oooh look at the ickle car

Taking a cue from last week’s Charlie Brooker rant against advertising, here’s a prime example of an agency surfing the internet to use someone else’s ideas. Was artist Keith Loutit credited by RKCR/Y&R for their Landrover Discovery work? Whatever the answer, you can’t look at the ad and say “ooh that’s clever” and give the agency all the creative kudos.
Here’s an example of Loutit’s work.

More here.

Originally spotted on Boing Boing.

Blow your noses and seize him!

Major Media Event Alert: Monty Python has launched its own YouTube channel. That's my excuse for posting my favourite Python movie clip here. It's one that the chimplets enjoy, sympathising with the agony of the Roman soldiers as they strain to hold back laughter. To them, it's just like those occasions when someone farts in school assembly.

Beware the Violent Kittens Of Death

Part of the fun of being a parent is the joy of the many opportunities where one can confuse the shit out of the rugrats, knowing full well that they’ll grow up and find you out. For instance, Chimplet #1 believed for years that I was a retired Jedi and my spaceship was buried under my house. Other deliberate misconceptions enjoyed by the tribe are that my exercise bike could be easily transformed into a jet pack, that the Cretaceous extinction really came about because of the Fourth Awesome Dinosaur War (e.g. Velociraptors with plasma guns, Pterosaurs with miasma bombs, etc.), and my personal favourite because it is still believed by Chimplet #3, that little girls have to decide on their 10th birthday whether they want to remain humans or turn into a horse.
I reckon this Toyota ad by Publicis Mojo must have been made when the creatives were completely shit-faced, or they are still very young and under the influence of a Dad With An Overactive Imagination cos the scenario here, that cats go to clubs and have huge fuck-off kung-fu fights with weapons, is one that’s right out of my book.

Zombies!

I love this - it's an interactive zombie movie. It has a slightly retro feel, seeing as this sort of game was all the rage in arcades about a decade ago. I suppose the innovative thing is that it's on the web.
Still, I'm a sucker for zombies. Many moons ago I did try and persuade a feminist girlfriend that a chap liking zombies was a sign of enlightenment because it meant he went for her brains rather than her looks, but she wasn't having any of it.

Look, there's a Spitfire in it

I thought I'd weigh in with some less obvious comments about Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy's Hovis ad (embedded and commented upon by two of my regular ports in a storm, Rob and Scamp).
This is a classic case study in how to advertise to Brits during a recession: patriotic, slightly cute, nostalgic and with the added bonus of reminding us that we did actually win a couple of wars, once (a quiet word to future prime ministers: we usually do better when the Americans turn up late). And there's a Spitfire in it.

Deserting customers? Go to the desert

To prove I don't hate all car advertising, here are a few slightly friendly words for the latest ad for one of our increasingly irrelevant brands, Land Rover. It's a quaint little story that emphasises the car's off-road qualities. I smile at the "crazy" director who is the spitting image of a head of Traffic - no pun intended - I used to know, who was also a bit nuts. Curious, that.

See also: Woo! Land Rover Man demands cocksuckage

Yay to the feminists

A slightly off-topic Big Up to a blog that reminds us that advertising talk is not about navel-gazing from within the industry. I stumbled across the Token Feminist by accident.
I was pleased to see someone fighting against the patronising and demoralising way that men talk to women. I did think awww, that's sweet, but it is worth checking out for the blog owner's opinions and her links to similar sites that occasionally rail against female stereotyping in ads.

Dear Brand X, the consumer says you’re fucked

Here’s a little mischief at the expense of some big brands. Which brands elicit the responses EVIL, DISGUSTING and BORING, when visitors are asked to describe them?
Browse the list here, or contribute your own thought emissions to a random brand egg here.

Look at those little buggers go!

Top marks to Auntie Beeb for getting into the spirit of things with this masterful trailer-come-ident for its iPlayer service.

WTF? Guinness

From today's Metro.

At least someone's having fun at the airport

If you have endured cancelled flights and lost baggage at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, then here’s why: trucks have been pissing around on the runway.
You’ve got to appreciate the timing as Fallon’s machines (a metaphor for Joy) arse around for the pure hell of it, while British Airways (a metaphor for Another Almighty British Fuck Up And Just You Wait For 2012, Suckers) ruins the travel plans of thousands of passengers and cancels its advertising.

True

Spotted in a card shop, the motto written just for me.

France invades Germany. Then you wake up.

Citroen is German at heart, you know.
I wanted to hate this yet-to-be-released ad, but so good is it to see so much brass neck on display, that I can't help but raise a quiet eyebrow in appreciation. This is a triple whammy as 1. Euro RSCG (home of the Conservative Party, for heaven's sake) make a really good ad; 2. There's a slight suggestion that they referred to Renault's recent France v Britain campaign for inspiration; and 3. There's the bold assertion that France can compete with the German stereotype of aristocratic mechanical efficiency.
Well, what the heck, it was nice of the French to build such nice wide leafy boulevards so the Germans could march in the shade.

via utalkmarketing, who have an impressive archive of ads on YouTube.

From the mouth of a master

The best video on the hot issue of product placement in movies, ever. This is the great David Lynch delivering a masterclass. Students of marketing: study his words, ponder them, never forget them.

Off-topic: music for the chimplets

There's a solid musical division Chez Chimp: the girls like BGM* and the boys go for eclectic, often noisy stuff.
It was pleasing to see one of my favourite tunes rubbing off on the chimplets. They all have the following racket on their iPods. What's noteworthy is that their (actually quite different) tastes come together when a song has fast lyrics that tell a story (e.g. Nickelback's Rock Star). Kids are unembarrassed about belting out wordy songs and make an effort to learn them.
Heavyweight Champion of the World is by Reverend and the Makers, a band which has supported the Arctic Monkeys. Once upon a time, the Reverend himself was in the same band as two of the pre-Monkeys.
It's a dodgy video and Rev's isn't the greatest voice in the world, but the song is a terrific warning against making too many compromises when you're young. I get a warm fuzzy paternal feeling when explaining to the chimplets that their futures belong to them and that they shouldn't let others' mediocrities temper their talents.

*Bland girly mush

See also: Cool? It’s a question of timing